


walking on a string

by tangentiallly



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: Don’t copy to another site, F/M, Friendship Angst, Gen, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 14:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21181304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tangentiallly/pseuds/tangentiallly
Summary: Bertrand went undercover to firestarting side and dated Georgina, Ernest attended firestarter meetings unbeknownst to his brothers, and they mutually stayed quiet about each other's secret.When the secret came to light without either of them saying a word, chaos ensued.





	walking on a string

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: I don't own ASOUE
> 
> i originally posted this on tumblr ([x](https://beatricebidelaire.tumblr.com/tagged/brotp%3A-we-recite-poems-to-recognize-each-other-in-disguise)) ([x](https://beatricebidelaire.tumblr.com/post/188581196841/anyway-so-yesterday-after-several-times-self)) but thought i would clean it up a bit and also post here

_ **I. The Premise** _

When Bertrand was undercover in the firestarting side for the firefighting side to gather information, he was especially under instruction to obtain optometry knowledge and ways of hypnotizing from Dr Georgina Orwell. (VFD claimed they wanted those to prevent their own from being hypnotized.) During the undercover assignment they had started dating a bit. He also did some lion training during this time, as the lions were owned by the firestarters.

In the meantime, Ernest was already secretly meeting up with some firestarters and attending some of their gatherings, unbeknownst to his brothers. However, since Bertrand was working with Georgina, he found out, and while Georgina and other firestarters had no idea Bertrand was a firefighting side spy undercover, Ernest, who learned the information from Dewey, knew full well. At that point they both had secrets on each other.

Naturally, they started buying each other drinks weekly to ensure the other person stay quiet about the secret. They also had polite and formal conversations while trying to decipher each other all the time.

Not wanting the other person to expose their secret, neither of them told other people what they knew. It was a stalemate for a while. Though eventually, without either of them saying a thing, the secrets still came out via other means. Georgina felt betrayed and was livid and vowed revenge, and Frank and Dewey similarly felt betrayed too - Frank more angry and Dewey more hurt. In the light of the reveals, Georgina also suspect Ernest must have known since his brother was on the other side (a correct suspicion), meanwhile Frank and Dewey thought Bertrand must’ve also known way earlier since he was undercover at firestarter gatherings.

To avoid everyone’s betrayed and hurt feelings and annoyance and anger, Ernest and Bertrand just went off grid together and disappeared. They ended up sharing bed in many small inns they stayed in. one thing led to another. Meanwhile back at Hotel Denouement Dewey had to pause library work for a bit to help with hotel maintenance.

* * *

_ **II. The Fortune Teller and The Concerned Brother** _

When they went off grid, Bertrand had used some of the fake identities he acquired from Olivia, who was good with forging documents. Olivia, who sometimes got visits from Jacques Snicket who wanted to know information on Lemony’s current status. That time Olivia did not have any Lemony updates to offer and she decided to offer something else in compensation instead and told him about the fake identities she knew Bertrand and Ernest were using after they went off grid.

Jacques, who had been busy with his own investigations and was very out of loop with the city rumors, was very surprised at the news, “Bertrand and Ernest were missing?!”

Olivia was equally surprised at this surprise. “You didn’t know?!”

Jacques then told Beatrice what Olivia told him and the two of them teamed up and tracked Bertrand and Ernest down together and Beatrice threatened to cause a huge ruckus if they didn’t come back to the city with her. No one seemed to want to risk that, and eventually they all went back.

* * *

_ **III. The Best Friend** _

Kit defended Bertrand to Frank saying, “He was undercover he had to do what he did to protect that, and it includes not risking tell you or Dewey because then E might told G about him.”

“If it had been your brother switching sides and he knew and didn’t say anything I bet you would feel differently now,” Frank snapped, displeased,

“Luckily for me, unlike you, _my_ brother won’t betray the organization,” Kit replied coolly.

* * *

_ **IV. The Fortune Teller and The Concerned Brother (again)** _

Later when Jacques met Olivia again he told her, “I finally figured out why I didn’t know they were missing earlier and was so surprised you told me. Because I had been to hotel denouement during that time, and I could’ve sworn I saw both Frank and Ernest.”

Olivia replied with a shrug, “that’s probably Dewey.”

Jacques sighed, “come on, don’t tell me you actually bought Kit’s lie, she just made him up to pretend she wasn’t actually continuing seeing Olaf behind my back while telling me they’d broken up.”

Olivia actually knew Dewey was very real and she blinked twice upon hearing what Jacques said before saying, “you’re right, how could I be so foolish to believe that lie.”

After Jacques left Olivia immediately phoned R to tell her this. R asked, “But now that Jacques knows that Ernest was missing, wouldn’t he realized Dewey is an actual person who exists?”

Olivia replied, “Well, I didn’t ask. He seemed resolute to believe Kit was doing something foolish with her love life, and I wasn’t sure whether he even wants to know the truth or not, so I just went along and agreed with him.”

And then R told Sally who told Gustav who told Beatrice who told Kit who was very shocked by the news. “Jacques thought I’m _what_?!”

“Inventing legendary figures,” Beatrice answered promptly.

* * *

_ **V. The Apology** _

Frank and Ernest had a fight about VFD after Ernest got back. Meanwhile Dewey’s feelings towards what Ernest had done was a mixture of “I can’t believe you’re joining the firestarters” and “well I can accept joining the other side but disappearing like that for weeks now that’s not cool do you know how worried I was” and “I’m so glad you’re back I cannot handle the daily hotel work anymore I want to go back to my library”.

Bertrand, while back in the city, still avoided going to the hotel.

Eventually Frank and Ernest’s fight sort of calmed down and they got back to the daily routine hotel stuff, albeit more passive aggressive and colder towards each other. Dewey kept trying to understand Ernest’s motives and kept asking different questions to Ernest.

With Frank and Ernest being more passive aggressive and Bertrand not coming to the hotel and Kit being busy, it got lonely in the library. One day, Dewey told kit he missed Bertrand, and kit passed this message on. And after some hesitation and internal conflicts, Bertrand showed up at the underwater library next day.

“Hi,” Bertrand said, cautiously.

“I’ve missed you,” Dewey said immediately upon Bertrand’s arrival.

“Dewey… I’m sorry.”

Dewey sighed. “Well — I’ve been thinking this over and well maybe I’ve rarely been in the field doing actual undercover work so then I told myself maybe I underestimated the potential danger you could face if you told us and then he told Orwell. Maybe I was being unfair. I don’t know. But, I know you like to be careful so yeah I guess I could understand in a way, even if I don’t like it. I definitely wish you had told us, but I could understand why you hadn’t. But then, you just disappeared with him for _weeks_ and I have no idea where either of you are and I was worried sick and I had to deal with all the unpleasant hotel guests while having_ no idea_ where the two of you were or if you’re in some kind of trouble and I hate that. I _hate_ that, Bertrand. Could you maybe not do that again because I’d be really, really angry if you do.”

Bertrand winced. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

“I just — miss you. Like, probably more than you miss me since you’re with Ernest and we look the same and are interchangeable and all that —”

“You’re not interchangeable,” Bertrand interrupted. “If I made you feel that way I’m sorry. You’re not interchangeable, ok?”

Dewey drew a deep breath. “Thanks.”

They were silent for a moment.

“You should talk to frank, too,” Dewey said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I probably should,” Bertrand admitted softly.

“You’ve been avoiding him.”

Bertrand sighed. “I’m aware that I … haven’t been making the best decisions lately.”

“Talk to him,” Dewey repeated. “I’m. Asking you to.”

Bertrand hesitated. “Yeah. I will.”

* * *

_ **VI. The Apology (part 2)** _

After all that happened, Ernest being revealed to switch sides and also the implication of how Bertrand must’ve already known this since he was undercover on the other side, and then how the two of them just disappeared for weeks to avoid everyone until Beatrice and Jacques finally tracked them down - after all that happened, Frank felt - angry.

To be precise, he felt shocked and sad and bitter and anxious and frustrated, alongside with anger. He felt a kind of anger inside him waiting to burst and apparently it wasn’t so concealed since random hotel guests seemed to notice it occasionally, too. He was angry at a lot of things - angry at Ernest for switching sides, angry at himself for not seeing this earlier and not stopping this from happening, angry at Bertrand for knowing this for a while and didn’t say a single word about it and didn’t try to put a stop to this either, angry at Kit for defending Bertrand and how she had replied with “luckily for you, _my_ brother would never betray the organization” when Frank said she would have different opinions on this if it’s her brother this happened to. Angry at VFD for making things came to this, for things worsening to the point that Ernest had to switch sides - even though he wouldn’t really admit of this part to himself because if he was angry at VFD, did that mean he was not loyal either?

He was just - tired and angry and frustrated and trying to run a goddamn hotel the same time. And he’s clutching the pen in his hand so tight that it was a wonder it didn’t leave any mark. He snapped at the hotel guest who checked out late and glared daggers at anyone asking questions about the rooms.

And then he saw a very, very familiar person entering the hotel lobby from one of the corridors. He squeezed the pen in his hand tighter, and started waving a concierge over to take over the front desk. Across the lobby, Bertrand met his gaze, hesitant and uncertain and guilt-ridden at the same time. Frank narrowed his eyes back at Bertrand, and then gestured towards his office. There was a brief moment of hesitation flickering across his face - as if he was debating whether he should bolt for the hotel entrance - before Bertrand gave a small, quick nod, then followed Frank to his office.

A moment of silence fell as Frank swung the door shut behind them after they entered the office.

“I’m sorry - for everything.” Bertrand broke the silence first. He sounded tense and nervous, and he looked like he desperately wished he could avoid Frank’s gaze but still forced himself to not look away.

“You could have - you could have stopped him,” Frank said, and he anticipated himself to be angry and only angry but he found his voice cracking just a little which was an absolutely terrifying realization he wished he didn’t have. He exhaled, steadying himself, before launching into a rant, “You could’ve tried to change his mind before he was too deep in. Or you could’ve told_ me_ and let me try to do something. What kind of undercover spy are you if you can’t even bring back important information like this? And it’s not that you didn’t know or weren’t aware - you just decided not to _do _anything about it.” Frank drew a sharp breath. “You could’ve stopped him. You _could have_. You could have at least tried - or told me or Dewey.”

Frank’s words got quicker and louder by each sentence and Bertrand flinched, willing himself not to look away from Frank’s intense anger. All of Frank’s questions were legitimate and reasonable and Bertrand was asking himself the same question over and over again and also wondering why hadn’t Dewey asked him any of this why hadn’t Dewey blamed him for any of this because maybe Dewey should have.

_Why_ hadn’t he stopped Ernest? Tried to talk him out of it? Bertrand asked himself. It seemed so natural and so much easier at that time to just - pretend he didn’t know. It had been such an easy solution at that time. They would keep quiet about each other’s secrets to avoid their own being exposed. But why hadn’t he said anything to Ernest - tried to pull him back to the firefighting side? Because they had such a specific form of politeness and always artfully dodged potential dangerous subjects together and he didn’t want to break that balance? Because he’d been mostly stressed with trying to navigate Georgina’s library to steal information and also trying to navigate the enigma that was Georgina Orwell? Or maybe, maybe it was just he was a coward maybe he was just selfish and self-preserving and that was all maybe it wasn’t anything deep or complicated maybe maybe _maybe_ -

It was hard, looking right into Frank’s eyes and he wanted to look anywhere else anywhere but the anger and frustration, but he thought he shouldn’t. After all that happened - Frank deserved more than his continued avoidance. It was really the least he could do. He should’ve thought of Dewey and Frank more when he was on the mission he should’ve considered the impacts on them - his action, or rather, inaction. He should’ve done a lot of stuff but he hadn’t. He was the only person in the position to actually do something about it and he - hadn’t done a single thing.

He felt like the worst friend in the world. All of Frank’s accusations had a point and Bertrand couldn’t understand how in contrast Dewey was willing to let some of those go. “I - should have,” he admitted, voice raw. “I - I’m sorry I didn’t.”

They looked at each other, wordless. Then Frank said abruptly, “Kit thinks you’re right to put the mission first and not say anything.”

“I -” Bertrand began, and then stopped because he wasn’t sure what to say. In a way, he was grateful to have someone on his side, although he wondered if Kit was biased because they were best friends.

“I told her she would probably feel differently if it’d been her brother,” Frank continued, his voice cold, and Bertrand felt his stomach drop, because he had a feeling he knew exactly how Kit had responded. “And she told me how unlike _me_,” Frank drew a sharp breath before sneering, “_her_ brother would never betray the organization.”

Bertrand winced. “I’m sorry,” was all he could think of to say.

Frank looked at him, somewhat more calm now, his face utterly expressionless, his voice flat yet cold, “For a moment, I let myself indulge in the fantasy of Jacques joining the firestarting side.” His mouth pulled into a bitter smile. “Wild fantasy, I know. He probably never could.”

There was a brief change in Bertrand’s expression, quick but Frank didn’t miss it. He raised an eyebrow, “What? You couldn’t possibly think someone as loyal as Jacques could switch sides?”

Bertrand paused, then said very, very carefully, “Yeah. J _is_ very loyal.”

“_But_?” Frank pressed on.

“I didn’t say there’s a but,” Bertrand said, still eerily careful.

Frank glared at him. Bertrand looked away. “I’m not saying I don’t deserve this, but are you - are you really going to use that to guilt me into talking from now on?”

“Well,” Frank said coolly. “If it makes you talk …”

Bertrand hesitated. “_Please_ don’t tell anyone I said this,” he said, his voice quietly pleading.

Frank studied him. He wanted to say he didn’t have to promise him anything, or something equally harsh, but - Bertrand looked anxious and tired and filled with guilt and Frank wanted to just feel completely angry at him and nothing else, but that was harder than he’d originally anticipated. Because while he was angry - he was angry at more than just at Bertrand. He was angry at so many more things, so many more people - including himself. Because if he’d been a better brother who’d seen this earlier, maybe Ernest wouldn’t even have gone to those firestarter meetings and there would be nothing for Bertrand to witness at all.

“I won’t say anything - unless I think the situation requires me to and there are other things at stake,” he compromised.

“Fair enough,” Bertrand conceded after a moment.

Frank sighed inwardly, then reached a hand out, holding onto Bertrand’s, squeezing it lightly. Bertrand looked surprised by the gesture, and for a moment there seemed to be a glisten in his eyes but then he blinked and it was gone, and Frank wasn’t sure if he’d imagined that. Frank nodded towards the sofa. “Let’s sit down.”

Bertrand didn’t argue, and they settled down on the sofa. Frank slowly let go off Bertrand’s hand. “So?”

Bertrand hesitated again, “J - J is not only loyal but he’s also - truly believing. That everything we’re doing is the right thing. Like - everything _everything_.” He looked uncomfortable.

Frank frowned. “So? We were all like that. Completely absolutely. But we stayed, despite the small things we discovered.”

“We weren’t_ all _like that,” Bertrand corrected. “Not on that level, at least. And maybe I’m overthinking it but - when you believe in something so much, it’s always worse when the image is shattered, you know?”

Frank frowned, not saying anything. He wasn’t sure if he liked what Bertrand was getting at. Finally, he said, “Organizations fell off pedestals?”

“Crushing people underneath?” Bertrand replied, sounding distant. “I - uh - ”

“What?”

Bertrand swallowed. “Nothing.”

Frank narrowed his eyes. “It’s_ not_ nothing. What were you going to say?”

Bertrand averted Frank’s gaze. “I might’ve done something that ... indirectly prevented that. I didn’t - I wasn’t thinking about avoiding that specifically, I was just focusing on my other goal, but in hindsight - ” he was rambling now, his voice odd and unsure and fast and Frank suddenly had a feeling he had never told anyone this before. “Do you know Mr Jerome Squalor?”

“Jacques and Beatrice’s rich friend?” Frank asked. “What about him?”

“You - you can’t tell anyone what I say next. I mean it. Please.”

Frank wanted to refuse, but ultimately, he said, grudgingly, “Fine.” He asked, in a somewhat softer voice, “You’ve never told anyone this, have you?”

“Actually, Kit knows. But uh, yeah, no one else.”

Frank rolled his eyes. _Of course_.

“He’s even richer than the organization believes,” Bertrand said slowly, and Frank frowned, not getting why this was such a big deal and had to be a secret. “I might have, well, accidentally, misfiled some financial investigations on him I conducted.”

Frank’s eyebrow shot up.

Bertrand looked uncomfortable. “They’ve taken an interest in him already, but if they know exactly how rich he is, well - I’ve read up on some stuff from Dewey’s library and some past cases. They’ll probably …” he trailed off.

Frank’s frown deepened, as if some puzzle pieces were clicking in place but not all of them. “Steal it? Send Beatrice in to marry him while preparing to be widowed?” He paused abruptly. “Oh - you think if Squalor somehow died that would cause J to change his whole view on the organization.”

“I wasn’t thinking about that - I just - I know J loves him and thought maybe if I … misfiled a few things to make them lose interest … it wasn’t later when I thought about how if that had happened what would change concerning J’s allegiance.” He looked at Frank pleadingly. “Frank - I wasn’t - it wasn’t like I’m willing to take measures to prevent K’s brother from switching side but not for you - sometimes things just ...” He swallowed. “I’ve made some split decisions and they’re. Sometimes horrible.”

Frank grimaced, feeling oddly tired. “Whatever.” He said finally.

“I’m sorry,” Bertrand repeated.

Frank changed the subject suddenly. “You know, Dewey missed you lots.”

“Yeah he - mentioned,” Bertrand said.

Frank was silent for a moment, before saying, “He’s not the only one, though.”

_Oh_. “Frank …”

_I’m angry but you’re still a friend to me and I missed you and I don’t want you to stay away from the hotel like that. _“Dewey is forgiving and understanding in a way that I don’t think I know how to be. I’m still angry but - don’t stay away from the hotel. He’s not the only one who missed you. I guess - that’s what I want to say.” Frank said, wondering if this sounded too soft or anything, and then decided to add, “at the very least, I should get to boss you around and have you handle paperwork for me to compensate for all the additional work I had to do while you and E disappeared.”

“That’s … fair,” Bertrand said quietly. Then, in an even quieter voice, he added, “Thanks.” _Thank you for still wanting me around._

“Well,” Frank said. “If you want to get started, there are some tax documents to file on my table.”

**Author's Note:**

> [come say hi on tumblr](https://beatricebidelaire.tumblr.com)


End file.
